Jump to content

The Hockey Stick Illusion: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Content deleted Content added
DarknessShines2 (talk | contribs)
This is what all sources call it, plus it is in the book title
ChrisO~enwiki (talk | contribs)
rm POV nickname
Line 35: Line 35:
In its seventeen chapters, ''The Hockey Stick Illusion'' relates the story of Michael E. Mann, Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes's "hockey stick graph". Starting with a brief summary of the consensus view prior to 1998, and the first incarnation of the hockey stick graph, the book traces the history of what it claims is the slow unraveling of that same graph.
In its seventeen chapters, ''The Hockey Stick Illusion'' relates the story of Michael E. Mann, Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes's "hockey stick graph". Starting with a brief summary of the consensus view prior to 1998, and the first incarnation of the hockey stick graph, the book traces the history of what it claims is the slow unraveling of that same graph.


The last few chapters of the book deal with the [[Climatic Research Unit email controversy | ClimateGate Controversy]]. Here, the author compares several e-mails to the evidence he presents in ''The Hockey Stick Illusion.'' Montford focuses on those e-mails which dealt with the [[peer review]] process and how these pertained to McIntyre's efforts to get the data and methodology from Mann's and other [[paleoclimatologists]] published works.
The last few chapters of the book deal with the [[Climatic Research Unit email controversy]]. Here, the author compares several e-mails to the evidence he presents in ''The Hockey Stick Illusion.'' Montford focuses on those e-mails which dealt with the [[peer review]] process and how these pertained to McIntyre's efforts to get the data and methodology from Mann's and other [[paleoclimatologists]] published works.


==Reception==
==Reception==

Revision as of 09:26, 15 April 2010

The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science
AuthorA.W. Montford
SpracheEnglisch
SubjectClimate change
GenreNon-Fiction
PublisherStacey International
Publication date
2010
Publication placeVereinigtes Königreich
Pages482
ISBN978 1 906768 35 5

The Hockey Stick Illusion (subtitle Climategate and the Corruption of Science) is a book written by Andrew Montford. Stacey International published the book in 2010. The book states that it covers the history of the "hockey stick graph", the first version of which was published by Michael E. Mann, Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes in 1998, from then to its prominent use by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Criticisms[specify] by Ross McKitrick and Stephen McIntyre, as well as the ensuing hockey stick controversy, are also included in the book.

Background

In 2005 Andrew Montford, a British accountant[1], science publisher[1][2] and author of the Bishop Hill Blog[3], who is sceptical of man made climate change [3] followed a link to the blog Climate Audit.[4] He said new visitors were pleading for an introduction to the controversy and that there was nothing to help people get up to speed on the science. Over the course of a few days, Montford summarized a series of Climate Audit posts into a long article on his blog which he called "Caspar and the Jesus Paper."[5] He said this article made his site go from a couple of hundred hits a day to 30,000 hits over three days. From these beginnings, the author took the first steps in writing his book[1]

Synopsis

File:Hockey stick chart ipcc large.jpg
Figure 1(b) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Third Assessment Report

In its seventeen chapters, The Hockey Stick Illusion relates the story of Michael E. Mann, Raymond S. Bradley and Malcolm K. Hughes's "hockey stick graph". Starting with a brief summary of the consensus view prior to 1998, and the first incarnation of the hockey stick graph, the book traces the history of what it claims is the slow unraveling of that same graph.

The last few chapters of the book deal with the Climatic Research Unit email controversy. Here, the author compares several e-mails to the evidence he presents in The Hockey Stick Illusion. Montford focuses on those e-mails which dealt with the peer review process and how these pertained to McIntyre's efforts to get the data and methodology from Mann's and other paleoclimatologists published works.

Reception

The book has been praised for the quality of its writing and likened to a detective story.[5][6] Matt Ridley described the book as "one of the best science books in years" and complimented the way it dissected what he called "a great scientific mistake".[7] Christopher Booker also recommends the book as a "full account" of the IPCC's troubles.[8] Writing in Discovery News, Discovery Institute co-founder George Gilder compared the portrayal of Stephen McIntyre's pursuit of the data underlying the "hockey stick" graph with the lead detective character in the Columbo televison series.[9]

An article by Bruce Robbins in The Courier states that the book shows that the science involved in climate change has been corrupted by political and environmental agendas. Robbins concludes, "The evidence against man-made global warming is growing and the Hockey Stick Illusion stands as the definitive account of a pivotal point in climate change science."[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d Bruce Robbins (2010-04-02). "Climate of Change". The Courier.
  2. ^ "Heated discussions (postscript)". Times Higher Education. 2010-03-25.
  3. ^ a b David Leigh, Charles Arthur and Rob Evans (2010-02-04). "Detectives question climate change scientist over email leaks". Guardian. Retrieved 2010-04-14.
  4. ^ Andrew Montford (2010). The Hockey Stick Illusion: Climategate and the Corruption of Science (Preface). Stacey International. p. 13.
  5. ^ a b Matt Ridley (2010-02-03). "The global warming guerrillas". The Spectator (spectator.co.uk). Retrieved 2010-04-09.
  6. ^ "Spencer: It's time for Joe Sestak to name names". www.delcotimes.com. Retrieved Thursday, April 01, 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  7. ^ Matt Ridley (2010-03-10). "The case against the hockey stick". Prospect (prospectmagazine.co.uk). Retrieved 2010-04-03.
  8. ^ Christopher Booker (7:49PM GMT 27 Feb 2010). "A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC". www.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved Saturday, Apr 03 2010. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  9. ^ George Gilder (2010-02-25). "George Gilder Hails "The Hockey Stick Illusion" on the Science Scandal of Global Warming". discoverynews.org. Retrieved 2010-02-25. In this story, the Columbo figure is Steve McIntyre, a Canadian mining consultant, and A.W. Montford's book tells the gripping and suspenseful details of McIntyre's pursuit of the self-denominated "hockey team" led by Michael Mann, who wrote the key chapters on his own work for the IPCC, and Phil Jones, who maintains the temperature record used by the IPCC to document the "Hockey Stick" claiming allegedly unprecedented and anomalous anthropogenic global warming in the Twentieth Century while denying that any comparable or greater warming occurred in the Medieval period.

Further reading